i've recently started having a continuous pain in my upper left arm and some days wake up with tingling in fingers of my left hand. If i sleep funny i wake with a stiff neck.
i'm 49 but still play lots of sport however about 15 years ago i had an x-ray on my neck after falling awkward playing football. It showed a wearing of 6@7 in the vertebrae could this be linked to my current problem because the pain is like having toothache in my arm.If so is thereany pain relief i can take.

It does sound like the pain is coming from your neck; it causes shoulder and arm pain and/or tingling.

Since you did have an inury and have wear and tear between the vertebrae, it's most likely osteoarthritis.

You really should see a doctor if you are having not just tingling, but numbness in the hand or arm. It is treated with antiinflammatories, but with the possibly serious side effects of NSAIDs, talk to your doctor about it first.

I had the same symptoms two years ago. I ended up with
a ruptured disk in my neck..... I opted to self heal. It's been
almost two years, and I'm finally not living in as much pain,
but it is not all the way healed yet.

All, I did was sleep on my exercise mat, wake up and my
arm killed, fingers were numb.... as the day progressed
it got worse. It never occured to me that it was my neck,
because my neck didn't hurt. In fact, my arm felt like it was
a neck that had a crink in it......... Ouch.

I've had many people tell me they elected for surgery and were
fixed up within a few months.